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astroengine writes "A planned six-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station came to a dramatic and abrupt end on Tuesday when water started building up inside the helmet of Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano. Parmitano and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy were less than an hour into their spacewalk, their second in a week, when Parmitano reported that his head felt wet. 'My head is really wet and I have a feeling it's increasing,' Parmitano reported to ground control teams at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Parmitano returned safely to the space station interior, but the cause of the leak was not immediately known."

I'm not a rocket surgeon; but I'd guess a failure somewhere in the PLLS [wikipedia.org]. That component is supposed to condense and remove water vapor from the gas(as well as scrubbing CO2 and adding oxygen if needed) before reintroducing the fresh atmosphere into the astronaut's helmet.

Between a possible failure in the mechanism for removing condensation(which would cause the output to be alarmingly damp if you aren't expecting it; but would be a self-limiting problem since there just isn't that much water vapor available), there is the more serious possibility that the LCVG [wikipedia.org], or the heat exchanger that keeps the coolant water in that chilled, is leaking, which might actually end up being enough water to impair breathing(especially with surface tension but not gravity), or impair the cooling functions enough to threaten the astronaut's ability to function. If he's on a tether, they'd presumably just reel him in if he were to pass out from thermal overload; but a free walk would not be a good time to lose consciousness...

My first thought was a leak in the LCVG, which I would have to imagine would already suck big time during a multi-hour spacewalk just from water getting loose in the suit... (Especially if it's getting up into the helmet!) Physiological effects from the cooling failure are just the icing on the cake.

I would have lost my shit on the spot. Man, just imagining myself floating out there on a spacewalk 200 miles above the earth, and feeling water on my head that isn't supposed be there...*shudder*. Just being up there is a spectacular balancing act of hundreds of special-purpose technologies that nearly all result in a horrible horrible death should they go wrong, finding even the slightest thing going wrong would freak me out.

Calls to mind the trailer for Alfonso Cuaron's (director for Children of Men) ne

The astronaut is quoted as saying that it didn't taste like water from the drinking water supply. Could be that, once steeped in helmet-gunk and hair, it tastes different, could be from a coolant loop.

Still, a better - more accurate word could have been used. For example, "filling" would have been more accurate... I might have chosen "rapidly accumulating" - as the helmet was not approaching full after only 500ml (around the same amount as a bottle of soda).

My gas tank is full at 12 gallons, so 2 gallons does not make it full. Had the accumulation continued at the same rate, his helmet might have indeed been full at the end of a 6 1/2 hour walk - but, he didn't make it that far, didn't accumulate that

I know the suits use water cooling and there's also a drinking water supply system, so this causes a minor inconvenience. It wasn't like when Ed White did the first US spacewalk and his suit inflated to a size such that he couldn't get back into the Gemini Capsule. Some think he was just trying to get some extra spacewalk time but that seems a bit more like a real show stopper. In this case the guy just got a wet head and a shorted out comm system.

Oh no question but the guy can always go back inside. It's not like he's 50 miles away from the station? I guess the thing that makes it newsworthy is that it happens in space whereas an Oil Rig Diver who has an oxygen tank failure is less newsworthy because it isn't plastered all over the world news. As Super Chicken once said: "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it Fred."

Uhm, both are hazardous and I know a few of those Deep Sea guys. Sometimes they live pressurized for weeks at a time when working deep. So for all intents and purposes if their equipment fails, they may die. If the guy out in space has a problem with his equipment he may die too. I just say there's more eyes on the folks on the ISS than there are out in the Ocean so I guess the perspective is relative.

People step up to do these kinds of jobs so they know the risks, I say good job but there's probably a

But this is the ISS, the over-budget, over-priced lab where the Italians made the trash module (DaVinci Module is a giant trashcan). Let's face it the ISS is a bit boring and dull. Oh look another crew oh look a spacewalk. Sorry if that's cynical but hell, let's go back to the moon, let's go to Mars or further instead of a few miles up.

I just have to chime in here. Things have changed. And whether it was too expensive or not, that's in the past.

Now, the ISS is a critical element in the commercial/private space research and development that will take us to those other places in a real, "moving in and staying" kinda way. Almost every piece of hardware and technology will be tested on the ISS before it goes anywhere. For example, right now on the ISS is a 3D printer being tested to see how it works in microgravity, and learn what engineering changes will be required. 3D printing, or 'additive manufacturing' is one of the critical enabling technologies for long term travel, such as trips to Mars. And a Bigelow expandable habitat [bigelowaerospace.com] will be sent up and attached to the ISS for long term testing, soon.

Believe it or not, today the govt. is actually working to get out of the way, and really allow the ISS to be as useful as it could be. I'm kinda involved in some of the 'New Space' efforts. One very cool thing that the govt has done is designate the ISS as a National Laboratory (like Los Alamos, LLL, Sandia, Argonne, etc.) and has set up a program to provide free access for qualifying research - free launch, free astronaut activities (limited to a bit of button pushing) and free return. Administration has been delegated to an NGO (CASIS [iss-casis.org]). So this is a beyond-world-class scientific laboratory, available for free for whomever comes up with something interesting. And they (not just NASA, but several other agencies as well) _really_ want to show some good results - that's what will justify continued support.

This could be as important for space research and development as anything we've seen. Scheduling of experiments (built into one of the three standard rack systems, from the Nanorack size to full 19" rack) has changed so that, where in the past it could take two or three years to get an experiment approved and launched, now it's possible to get your experiment launched in a few months. It still will cost a company $300,000 or so to design, build, test and get through the approval process (quite a bit less for a volunteer/student project with free labor and scrounged materials) but this is a game changer.

One company I'm (distantly) involved with is doing biotech research, and plans to run two or more experiments per year over the next couple of years. If their research pans out, the fruit of that research may well justify at least the cost of running the station over that time.

TL;DR - the ISS is turning from a government boutique research facility into a major tool for independent R&D, and will be instrumental in making commercial space and space development economically and technically possible.

Okay, science, industry, great. The technology boon that came out of Apollo for example was great for the US and the world but the ISS is really getting on in years now and if routine problems cause everybody to gasp in shock, then we have truly become a world of twitter trackers with each message causing us to stop and pause to ponder whether or not one of the Kardashians has a new wart or looks to fat in this pic? I would question why you need a 3D printer in space anyway, at least at this point. What

The 3D printer is there for testing the whole principle of 3D printing - it's one of the ongoing experiments... But it's also produced useful things on the ISS already.

The ISS deliveries are one of the primary financial and technological drivers of companies like SpaceX to get their 'space legs' - and SpaceX has already been instrumental in dropping freight launch costs by 50% (not to just the ISS but all small/medium launches), saving everyone money with good ol' competition and innovation. Notice how im

Ah, Sun. How the mighty have fallen. Every company, like any organism, has a lifespan. Back in the early-mid 1980s when Sun had only been public for a little while, the stock was selling at $16.25 - one of my very first stock purchases. I bought 100 shares. Two years later the stock had not budged from $16.25, and I needed some cash so I sold it. (I should have at least done a little research, but...) A week later it was at $24 and never looked back. I think it split seven times by 2000. I think my

In the novel "Have Space Suit -- Will Travel", Kip and Peewee are
on the moon and trying to escape the bad guys by walking to the
nearest lunar base. Peewee complaints about being thirsty. Kip,
in his professional grade, if obsolete, space suit has a water
nipple and he is momentarily incensed that Peewee's moon-tourist
space suit doesn't. But then he realizes that it would probably
be a bad idea because a tourist might bite the nipple off and
drown in the suit. (At least that's the way I remember it.)